Razer asks users to activate gaming mice online, uproar follows.

In this hyper-connected, networked world, many more of our devices are getting linked to the cloud, whether we want them to or not. That's sometimes good, and sometimes bad, so when a basic device like a mouse requires a user to go online and set up an account to activate all of its functionality, people are understandably going to ask why?

We've seen really bad implementations of cloud connectivity for devices that simply don't need it. Witness Cisco's "Connect Cloud" program that replaced the traditional management interface for wireless routers with a cloud-connected one that was less useful and contained some bizarre anti-porn and anti-piracy terms of service. Users protested in what we think was a completely justified rebellion, and Cisco quickly back-pedaled to save face.

Now we have a new entry in the saga of "Why the hell does this thing need to connect to the Internet?" In this case, the company on the receiving end of the backlash may not entirely deserve it, but hasn't done a great job avoiding confusion among customers.

Please activate your mouse

The subject is Synapse 2.0, a "cloud-based unified driver for gamers" offered by Razer that saves gaming preferences online, including the user-defined settings and configuration of gaming mice. This lets gamers log in from anywhere in the world, or switch to a new mouse and play with their personal settings intact. The activation server for Synapse 2.0 went down a couple of times recently due to Hurricane Sandy and some server usage spikes that the system couldn't handle. That's relevant because an uproar against this service building this week seems to have originated from a forum post by a customer who purchased a Razer Naga gaming mouse, and apparently tried to set it up during one of the outages. The user writes:

This really took me by surprise. Just bought a new Naga 2012 mouse, installed the software and get greeted by a login screen right after. No option to bypass it to use the software to configure the mouse, set the options, sensitivity, shortcuts, macros etc.

So I go ahead and create an account and try to log in. Nothing. Try several more times, and still nothing. Try to make new accounts with different email addresses and it still wont work.

Finally call Razer who tells me the activation server is down, and I wont be able to use the mouse until it goes back up and will only be able to use it as a standard plug and play mouse til then. I ask about a workaround to use the mouse offline and they say there is none. Supposedly once the mouse is activated on the computer offline mode will work, but it needs to upload my profile and activate my account first and since their server is down its not going to happen. I ask for a supervisor to confirm this is the case and ask again for a workaround to use it offline. He said sorry theres nothing they can do, tells me the call center is closing and hangs up on me.

Im pretty shocked Razer thought it was a good idea to do this to customers. Nowhere on the box does it say anything about needing an Internet connection to "activate" a mouse. If the servers go down in the future, anyone who buys this mouse is out of luck.

Honestly the last time I buy a Razer product. Absolutely ridiculous.

While the user's post acknowledges the mouse does work out-of-the-box, without an Internet connection, it goes on to say that advanced functionality gamers depend upon is not available without one:

Razer forces you to create an account with them before you can use the software with the mouse. You can't configure the mouse in any way until you make an account with them and activate your computer and account through their server. … Yes, you can use the mouse as plug and play with basic functionality if you choose not to make an account and activate your computer, but who pays $80 for a basic plug and play mouse? The reason people buy the Naga 2012 is the configurable buttons and to change the DPI, polling rate, set up macros and profiles along with everything else. Razer has no right to lock this away from customers who paid for these features. For the Naga 2012 mouse, there is no other offline drivers to revert to. Synapse 2.0 is your only option.

The user's post led to a variety of complaints about Razer blocking functionality and forcing "always-on data mining" and DRM schemes onto its users. The complaints may be overblown, but at the very least Razer hasn't done a good job informing gamers about the differences between Synapse 1.0 and Synapse 2.0.

Save your settings in the cloud

Razer's Synapse 2.0 FAQ could be read to suggest that a Synapse 2.0 account is required to create macros and key bindings. "All Razer products function as plug and play devices," the FAQ states. "Razer Synapse 2.0 offers a service above and beyond basic functionality to enhance your Razer product's capabilities. This includes features like configuring and saving macros, key binds, and preference settings. Razer Synapse 2.0 also maintains your devices in optimal condition by automatically updating and downloading driver and firmware updates, in addition to its cloud-syncing ability. Razer Synapse 2.0 is not compulsory software to get your Razer peripherals working—but it is advisable if you want to get the best out of them."

However, further statements by Razer in response to the controversy suggest that Synapse 2.0 is needed only for syncing settings across devices, not for creating the settings in the first place.

Razer Creative Director Min-Liang Tan addressed the controversy in a lengthy Facebook post yesterday, and our old friend Ben Kuchera of Penny Arcade declares the hullabaloo a tempest in a teapot. After investigating the matter, Kuchera concluded "You only need to go online once to register the product, the company claims no information is being collected, offline mode is available once you create an account, and if you want to bypass this craziness you can just stick to an earlier version of the Synapse software or not use Razer’s drivers at all. But DRM? Spyware? That doesn't look likely."

The Synapse 2.0 registration page asks for first and last name, phone number, e-mail, and street address. Even if you never create a Synapse 2.0 account, you can still configure a Razer mouse, it seems. "For the DeathAdder [a gaming mouse], for example, you can still program your buttons, but you have to do it through the game or Windows, not through the driver," a Razer representative told Penny Arcade. "Some adjustments would need to be made through the driver on some mice or via a switch on other mice."

While I don't have one of these mice to test it out for myself, Tan writes in his Facebook post that the functionality requiring a Synapse 2.0 account is mostly for syncing settings online, not for creating the settings. There is an exception that could limit a gamer's functionality, though, in that the Synapse 2.0 drivers are necessary to sync keymappings between mice and keyboards. Here's what Tan says:

Our products work perfectly out of the box. Unlike DRM games or other media that require an always-on connection, you can use any of our peripherals right out of the box, even if someone doesn’t install Synapse 2.0, and whether a user is offline or online.

Synapse 2.0 provides for additional functionality in the form of cloud storage for settings, inter-device communications, etc. Once registered, Synapse 2.0 provides additional functionality of almost limitless memory in the cloud. It does the same with mapping physical functions, affording myriad options for an array of applications. The amount of information required to register the product is minimal. Again, we make a range of products that, to some degree or another, benefit from cloud-based functionality, but it is not a requirement for our products to work. There are great gamers out there that don’t regularly use Synapse 2.0, which speaks to the inherent quality of our products.

Tan goes on to say that once a mouse is registered with Razer's servers, all of the Synapse 2.0 functionality can be used offline, with settings stored locally instead of being synced to the cloud. However, Tan acknowledged Razer needs to take "steps to clarify the situation." For one thing, Razer now plans to make Synapse 1.0 drivers and other legacy drivers available shortly on its support site, although this only applies to "applicable legacy products." Razer will also add what Tan called a "manual offline mode" letting users keep their mice offline even when their computers are connected to the Internet.

Currently, users have to check a setting to allow the mouse to enter offline mode when the Internet connection goes down. "At this time, Synapse 2.0 works seamlessly between online and offline mode, and is unobtrusive to the user," Tan wrote. "If an Internet connection goes down and if the user has enabled offline mode by checking the "stay logged in" box, Synapse 2.0 automatically goes into offline mode."

More offline mode, please

There may not be much to worry about in this particular case. But it's hard to consider the matter totally settled, as Tan's explanatory post raises some questions. For instance, he says, Razer is moving toward cloud storage because "we realized that as firmware, profiles, macros and other settings stored in onboard memory became more complex, more memory space was required."

While Synapse 2.0 in its current form works offline once you've created an account, Tan's statement suggests a belief that mice are on the verge of gaining more advanced functionality that cannot be delivered without access to cloud storage. But if the settings can be stored in the cloud, why can't a user who prefers not to have an account at all just store them on their PC instead? Even today, if Synapse 2.0 works perfectly offline once you've created an online account, why not just let Synapse 2.0 (minus cloud syncing) work offline without creating the account in the first place? With all the storage gamers have on their desktops, citing a lack of storage space doesn't seem like a strong argument.

The fact that Razer is now rushing out a release of the older drivers and is creating a new type of offline mode suggests the company was trying to tie its products' functionality to the cloud a little bit faster than its customers wanted them to. And if Razer or any other company makes further moves customers dislike, those customers can do what they've always done: protest until everything is set back in its proper place. After all, the customer is always right.

Our products work perfectly out of the box. Unlike DRM games or other media that require an always-on connection, you can use any of our peripherals right out of the box, even if someone doesn’t install Synapse 2.0, and whether a user is offline or online.

Synapse 2.0 provides for additional functionality in the form of cloud storage for settings, inter-device communications, etc. Once registered, Synapse 2.0 provides additional functionality of almost limitless memory in the cloud. It does the same with mapping physical functions, affording myriad options for an array of applications. The amount of information required to register the product is minimal. Again, we make a range of products that, to some degree or another, benefit from cloud-based functionality, but it is not a requirement for our products to work. There are great gamers out there that don’t regularly use Synapse 2.0, which speaks to the inherent quality of our products.

why so much beating around the bush? it's not that complicated. does it or does it not provide full functionality regardless of registration or connection? this is a straightforward question that can be answered by a simple yes or no.

yes - you make these functions apparent so we can get on with our lives.

no - we burn this name to the ground and get your garbage off the market.

the only quotes of any substance here are from first hand experience describing exactly the case, that their drivers are worthless without an activation. no one is paying upwards of $80 for high end features that you can't use without checking in remotely. not sure what their devs were smoking when they came up with this one.

165 Reader Comments

Ugh. If storing macros and profiles were the only reason for this travesty; why couldn't Razer have baked it into a flash card in the mouse itself. (So when you use the mouse on various computers, your profiles travel with you)

(I take my cyborg RAT with my laptop when I visit friends for LAN gaming, for instance)

There is nothing I hate more than this Synapse product. It crashed for days when I updated my tower to windows 8 and all I wanted was the ability to properly use the blackwidow keyboard I have. I'm inclined to agree that this is likely the last razer product I'll be buying.

Razer wants your gamer/user information so they can sell it to other companies for cash money. That is why they want you to register it with the cloud. All the other reasons they want to tell us are BS. It is all about selling customer information on the open market these days. They trade us all like baseball cards.

Quote:

The fact that Razer is now rushing out a release of the older drivers and is creating a new type of offline mode suggests the company was trying to tie its products' functionality to the cloud a little bit faster than its customers wanted them to. And

How about NEVER. That would be a good time to register a MOUSE with the online cloud.

synapse is complete garbage. i bought the deathstalker ultimate and got a refund because the drivers did nothing but crash and the screen was glitchy as all sin. Razer seems to think that because usb can supply some power that they never need to provide a power supply. 1/2 the time i end up using a cell phone power adaptor because even with my 1000w psu it still needs more power.

"You only need to go online once to register the product, the company claims no information is being collected, offline mode is available once you create an account, and if you want to bypass this craziness you can just stick to an earlier version of the Synapse software or not use Razer’s drivers at all. But DRM? Spyware? That doesn’t look likely."

Right, Facebook and many other companies claimed the same things. Then they got caught doing the opposite by collecting tons of customer information and then trading it on the open market. Excuse me if my trust level for these companies is just a little low at this point in time.

Ugh. If storing macros and profiles were the only reason for this travesty; why couldn't Razer have baked it into a flash card in the mouse itself. (So when you use the mouse on various computers, your profiles travel with you)

(I take my cyborg RAT with my laptop when I visit friends for LAN gaming, for instance)

As was mentioned in the article, it helps if you want to register a new mouse with your account and have your profiles automatically added.

Mortus wrote:

Makes perfect sense. I can't count the number of times I've taken my wired mouse around and demanded to hook it up to my friend's computer when I went to their house to play an online video game.

This is useful if you want to use the same mouse on more than one computer, or if you get a new computer and want your settings to be the same

only thing is you could grab the config files before drop them in place and bam done none of this connected bs.

we realized that as firmware, profiles, macros and other settings stored in onboard memory became more complex, more memory space was required.

What in God's name were you trying to store on a mouse?! A 512MB stick of flash memory should be more than sufficient for settings for hundreds of games.

My OCZ Sabre OLED keyboard comes with this nifty 3x3 grid of monochrome programmable OLED keys. It has a built in 256 megabyte flash drive - far more than enough to hold its drivers and its custom pictures.

Granted, the macro programming options are hideously anemic and you can't just enter text to display on the OLED keys in the drivers - you have to go make them in Paint or Photoshop, so the keyboard is really disappointing in general - as are most other uber-fancy tech gadgets - but in this day and age there really isn't any reason for any device with any amount of custom drivers not to offer flash storage of those drivers.

Also, I love my Cyborg Rat and don't see myself purchasing another mouse for another 5+ years.

I used Razor mice for graphic design, and their drivers and hardware both are not reliable. 2 of 3 had hardware faults in less than a year. Driver was bad enough I scrapped the extra features and just used the stock Windows stuff.

My Razer Copperhead (couple years old now) stores all of its settings in flash on the mouse itself, so that's not really a new concept. One use case I heard for storing online is that your settings are available across multiple computers *and multiple mice*. I only own two Razer mice, and only one is for gaming, so I wouldn't gain anything from this, and I doubt the vast majority of gamers would either, but I can see a niche market for this.

Makes perfect sense. I can't count the number of times I've taken my wired mouse around and demanded to hook it up to my friend's computer when I went to their house to play an online video game.

I think the concept of having centralised settings makes sense but it should be optional, it certainly doesn't make sense to force users to set up the feature and not allow the configuration software to be installed and used without the online part.

Forget that. Online activation for a mouse? Register and provide personal info to use a programmable input device? I would appreciate settings import/export. Hey, an option to upload it to a cloud service? Offer it, I'm sure you'll get some who like it. As the only method to use the features of the damn thing? Glad you have competitors.

Here's what I really don't get - how's there even a market for such a mouse?! Afterall - if (pardon the crass language) you suck at a game with a normal mouse,having such an expensive and fugly device such as this one is not gonna help you.. Whereas if you're good at gaming, you could make do with pretty much every 'normal' mouse out there ..Edit:Ooh,-4 and counting.. Well, perhaps I'm wrong to be critical of such a piece of kit. Still wouldn't trade my 30$ M510 for this mouse

Makes perfect sense. I can't count the number of times I've taken my wired mouse around and demanded to hook it up to my friend's computer when I went to their house to play an online video game.

I think the concept of having centralised settings makes sense but it should be optional, it certainly doesn't make sense to force users to set up the feature and not allow the configuration software to be installed and used without the online part.

John

As others have said though, Razer previously had mice that had built-in flash memory just for saving configurations. There's no reason they couldn't consider that. This is pure data mining at its core.

I still don't understand why there is a need to authenticate your mouse? Everything they are claiming you need the cloud for can be done locally on your computer. What benefit exactly is this even providing? So you can use your mouse on multiple difference computers? Download your personal settings to your friends mouse? All of these sound like fringe uses. Even then, why not simply save the settings on the mouse. I am hard pressed to believe add a few more Kb of RAM on a mouse is more expensive than running a cloud service.

As far as not being spyware, I can't believe they are not analyzing the data they are collecting. It would be capitally stupid to not do so and figure out how your users are using your product so you can drive product improvement.

How odd, that nobody complains about how the Logitech Harmony requires software that requires an account. Yeah, it's a remote, but it's still the same situation for configuring all the buttons on it.

Realistically, the only problem is the fact that it has issues with going into offline mode which just sounds like they released a buggy driver/software package.

I don't have one, but is this required to do any programming at all, or just to fetch pre-defined profiles to save you the effort?

Keeping a database of tens of thousands ever-changing of TV, DVD, stereo, etc. codes online makes perfect sense. Needing to activate your mouse online before you can manually set the button functions does not.

I own a Logitech universal remote with similar setup whereby to program it via USB requires visiting a web page, creating yet another login and running a Flash app. While somewhat more justified in needed online access than a frikkin' mouse (it needs to access a database of IR codes) it's another symptom of the terrible trend of non-internet connected devices to requiring internet access for configuration.

Plain and simple, 100% of the functionality of the driver shoudl work offline, period. It shoudl be 100% optional to register online and sync settings. Local devices on the same machine should be able to sync settings with or without this activation as well using local files through the unified driver. The one and only advantage of this system is if you know multiple people who have a similar, compatible mouse, and you go to their PC and want your settings temporarily applied to the mouse. When taking YOUR mouse with you, the settings should just be in flash in the mouse, simple enough as many already do, in no way necesitating network access.

install the app, ask if you want the online service or not, and if the user says no, disable the syncing features and let the user use the driver. Any other configuration shows a want/need by the manufacturer to have you as part of their community for some other purpose, likely profit motivated, and there is no reason for that.

"cloud-based driver" is the kind of phrase you would hear in a movie that would normally be a trigger telling you that the writer doesn't know a damn thing about technology and just picked some buzzwords out of a hat.

How odd, that nobody complains about how the Logitech Harmony requires software that requires an account. Yeah, it's a remote, but it's still the same situation for configuring all the buttons on it.

Realistically, the only problem is the fact that it has issues with going into offline mode which just sounds like they released a buggy driver/software package.

My understanding is that one of the selling points for the remote is it taps into a pre-existing "cloud" database to save you the trouble of doing a lot of the setup (trial & error) that's normally involved in a universal remote. Saving any customization you do would be a bonus.

synapse is complete garbage. i bought the deathstalker ultimate and got a refund because the drivers did nothing but crash and the screen was glitchy as all sin. Razer seems to think that because usb can supply some power that they never need to provide a power supply. 1/2 the time i end up using a cell phone power adaptor because even with my 1000w psu it still needs more power.

Your keyboard needs more power then a 1000w psu can provide. Right. Maybe they do need more power then usb can provide, but that has absolutely nothing to do with how much power your psu can provide. There is not a keyboard in existence that would make how much power your supply puts out matter.

There is a lot of hate flying around towards razer, but I think there is something being missed with this as well. A while back I had a brain injury & lost fine motor control over my left arm/hand. I have no idea if my razer naga is running the 2.0 or 1.0 drivers, but thanks to it's little app, I can remember sitting there grinning in tears whn I rezlized I could map the game to my mouse instead of vice-versa while trying to play something that didn't allow me yo remap all of the keys to numpad. My naga is also the only reason I can do things like use the clone tool in photoshop where alt-click is required. Since the Naga only comes in right handed versions, I can't imagine what I would need to do to if the injury had affected the right side instead of left. Ars has done a lot of articles about handicap accessible games in the past, my naga is a key to that, a left handed version would make them worthy of serious props for accessibility since they would make games usable by folks with either hand impaired

synapse is complete garbage. i bought the deathstalker ultimate and got a refund because the drivers did nothing but crash and the screen was glitchy as all sin. Razer seems to think that because usb can supply some power that they never need to provide a power supply. 1/2 the time i end up using a cell phone power adaptor because even with my 1000w psu it still needs more power.

As others have said, it is absolutely ridiculous that your power supply was blamed.

Razer wants your gamer/user information so they can sell it to other companies for cash money. That is why they want you to register it with the cloud. All the other reasons they want to tell us are BS. It is all about selling customer information on the open market these days. They trade us all like baseball cards.

Well, given that they require your first & last name, phone number, and street address during registration, I think it's fairly obvious.

I have Razer Death Adder mice for use at home and work. When I got my new work laptop I tried to get Synapse 2.0 working on it (the 1.x download link wasn't obvious and I missed it at first); but the corporate firewall blocked it (it kills most http/https traffic coming from anything other than a browser). I don't need 27 different button mappings at work; but I do want to disable the light up mouse wheel and pulsing logo on the palmrest area. Since the Death Adder doesn't have any onboard storage at all; the only way to do so is to have synapse running at all times.

If their new mice don't work with Synapse 1.x (and they don't add a pure offline option to 2.0) I'm probably going to have problems in a few years when my current ones die. As someone who needs an ergonomic (asymmetric) mouse and who uses his left hand Razer is currently my only sanely priced option.

This is something I would never consider purchasing. Although it would be difficult to know if their packaging really didn't mention that you need an internet connection and have to register before all advertised features became enabled. I would promptly return this device though if this were the case.